Africa: Polisario Devastated by Impact of Mohammed VI’s Speech

According to well-informed sources in the Tindouf camps, the Polisario leadership is utterly devastated by the deep impression left by the moving speech delivered by King Mohammed VI on Tuesday before the 28th summit of the African Union, which consecrated Morocco’s triumphant return within the Pan-African organization.

Until the last minute, the Polisario had assumed that Algeria and South Africa would be able to block, or at least delay, the reintegration of Morocco. However, their dream did not come true.

Algerian diplomats raised alleged legal and procedural objections, but the overwhelming majority of African countries had had the last word. The forty or so AU member countries insisted on the readmission of Morocco to the AU at the 28thsummit, immediately and without any shillyshallying.

And the Polisario leader’s troubles were not yet over. The following day, the king’s warmly applauded speech in Addis Ababa and the deep impact of the royal address on the African heads of state gathered in the Ethiopian capital crashed any remaining hope Brahim Ghali could have had. The separatist leader’s hopes were dashed away as were the unsuccessful attempts of Algiers and Pretoria.

Mohammed VI’s strong worded and moving address did not cheer neither Algeria nor the Polisario. Especially so, as the king insisted that “Morocco is not returning to the African Union through the back door, but by the main gate.” “This is shown by the warm welcome extended to us today by our African brothers,” he said.

Actually, Morocco quitted the OAU in 1984 to protest the admission of the Polisario-proclaimed republic under the pressure of Algeria and Gaddafi’s Libya, but it did not left Africa. The evidence? Mohammed VI underlined, with the support of the relevant figures, the strong bilateral relations Morocco has woven with African countries across the continent over the past two decades.